Episode 86. all rounder (3)
[Activates ‘Emotion Implant’.]
I was so surprised that I reflexively showed my nature. But thanks to that, I was able to observe the other person closely in a calmer mood.
‘The expression is subtly different.’
When he came to notify Oh Myung-jun of his elimination, his expression hardened. Compared to that, I didn’t feel that tension at all now.
“hmm? Did you not hear the instructions?”
“Guidelines?”
“For efficient participant management, we plan to integrate the number of students staying in the accommodation. It means that other students will fill in the vacant dorms because they were eliminated in the past.”
Sure enough, it was different.
“ah. That’s what you meant.”
The size of the building is also grand, befitting the scale of Signal. If the students were dispersed in small numbers in such a wide area, there wouldn’t be much trouble.
After I answered yes, I packed my things and moved to the room the examiner had told me about.
The relationship with the students I met at the new dorm was just face-to-face. Everyone seemed to be busy doing their own things, probably mentally exhausted from the notorious 5-day car.
After simply unpacking, washing in the bathtub, and heading to the restaurant, I could see that the interior scenery had changed.
‘right. They said that the meals provided to students who passed the 5th day get better.’
If it was in the form of food distribution until the 4th day, it was in the form of a buffet this time.
While the chefs were busy moving pans and spatulas, hall staff could be seen walking around the table, checking and replenishing missing dishes.
among them.
“Yumma.”
“Ugh. cellar? Wow! Cough Cough!”
“Are you surprised? sorry. drink water water I will pretend.”
Oh Myung-jun, who I thought had left lonely, came into my eyes out of nowhere. He made eye contact with me and scratched the back of his head shyly.
“No, that’s it. A friend who was eliminated with me asked me to go out after dinner. I heard that from the 5th, there will be delicious meals… … .”
“I can’t stand delicious food. So who is that friend?”
“I left for a while to bring you a new one.”
“I see.”
He smiled awkwardly and looked at the plate he had been carrying.
“Because of failing the exam, I lost my appetite, so I honestly thought I wouldn’t go down my throat… … . horn. The moment I took a bite, my taste buds immediately lived.”
“You seem to have a personality where food tastes strangely delicious when you’re stressed.”
“Eh. That’s why you’re so fat what can i do It’s an instinct you can’t resist. But it’s true that stress is relieved after eating.”
Some old nagging comments came to my mind, but I just quietly covered them up. Instead, I decided to ask a question that would benefit me more from this situation.
“Myungjun. Are there any popular menu items at this buffet? You must try this.”
“ah! See that tray over there? Because it’s so popular, is there a menu with restrictions per person?”
“What kind of food is it?”
Oh Myung-jun pointed with his finger at one of the plates he had been serving. It was a piece of cake roughly the size of the palm of my hand.
“It’s a cake called ‘Starlight Furnishment’. have you heard A very famous bakery company. It’s so popular and delicious that you can’t find it on the market.”
“cake? Didn’t the cake come out last time on the 3rd day?”
“hey. It would be rude to compare it to mass-produced cakes like that! Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? You’ll know why you can’t find it when you try it. If you like sweets, go ahead and grab it right away. It wasn’t long before I picked it up.”
I accepted the recommendation and headed straight for the tray Oh Myung-jun had mentioned.
“student. One piece for each person.”
Even though I just looked at it, the chef who was cooking in front of me suddenly opened his mouth. Looking at the tray, there were less than five pieces left.
“Phew. It’s not too late!”
“Let’s pick it up quickly!”
After watching for a while, two students each took a cake in real time. At this rate, I could open my eyes, but since my nose was so strong, I hurriedly put a piece of cake on the plate.
‘Starlight Furnishment. It’s the punishment of starlight. That name is brutal.’
The characteristic of a cake is that it is placed on top of the cake. Star-shaped strawberries sprinkled with syrup were glistening in the dining room lights.
It doesn’t even look like it was cut with a knife. It was a strawberry that grew in the shape of a star.
‘I’ll have to try this first.’
I can’t stand seeing this.
When I order Bondi Ahh, I start with whipped cream first, and when I eat bone haejangguk, I unconditionally spread the meat first and then eat a full-fledged meal.
That was my eating philosophy. Delicious food should be eaten at the moment when you are most hungry.
“oh.”
crazy
The moment I put the star-shaped strawberry in my mouth and chewed it, all I could think about was that. It wasn’t just the appearance that was unique. The taste of the flesh that bursts at the moment of chewing is also different in nature from ordinary strawberries.
‘How can I express this? Should I say sweet and sour honey?’
In fact, I could feel a slightly sticky texture like honey in the juice. Even the texture was absolutely perfect.
As an inexhaustible lover of sweet things, I was confident that there would be no fruit more perfect than this.
“hello.”
While I was intoxicated by the feast of flavors, I was suddenly brought back to my senses by a voice coming from behind.
“You’re here.”
It was a stray forest that came close to me. There was nothing sudden. Since he always came by my side at mealtime, I welcomed him thinking that he would now.
In her hand is a cake identical to the one I brought. There was a plate containing Starlight Punishment.
“Are you just going to eat the cake?”
“yes.”
“Do you like sweets?”
“i like you.”
Yurim Pyo went over to the chair across from me and sat down.
“Aren’t you eating other food?”
“How about Kim Do-yoon?”
“I’m going to eat and eat this. I like to eat delicious things first.”
I stared at the cake she brought.
‘hmm.’
Did you say it was your favorite food?
Suddenly, a playfulness welled up.
“ah?”
The moment she picked up the fork. I took advantage of the gap and ate the star-shaped strawberries on her cake.
“Are you mad?”
“Is it delicious?”
Pyo Yu-rim’s reaction was calm.
I, who usually take pride in being sensitive to changes in her emotions, found it difficult to read this time.
“I took it because it was delicious.”
“okay.”
She left the cake and hurried away. It wasn’t the reaction I expected.
He was a child who always tended to be obedient and passive to me, except in matters involving my life. So I tried to play a joke, wondering if that would be the case this time, but I never thought it would come out like this.
After all, touching the strawberries on the cake must have crossed the line. If we meet again later, we have to comfort each other somehow… … .
“Mr. Kim Do-yoon.”
The stray forest, which I thought had gone, suddenly appeared behind me. I couldn’t help but be surprised by this, so my shoulders trembled.
“why?”
“Can you please follow me?”
“wait for a sec. When we go, even if we go, let’s eat all the cake and go.”
“It’s okay, so please come.”
The voice was so resolute that I had no choice but to follow it. This attitude was all the more unfamiliar to me because she was always quiet when talking to me.
‘Are they really coming here to retaliate?’
When I followed it, it wasn’t.
“I heard you like it, so I talked to the chef and got some leftovers for the staff.”
inside of the restaurant. A break room reserved for cooks. I could receive a whole cake version of Starlight Furnishment on my desk. Not even one, but five.
“How did you get this?”
“I said I would pay more and live.”
“How much money did you give me? I heard you can’t get this even if you have money?”
As she said that, she handed out a leaflet to me.
The logo of the bakery company that made Starlight Furnishment was seen first, and underneath it was a person who seemed to be an ambassador… … It was a drifting forest.
“You also filmed this publicity.”
At least in the original work I know, there was no such appearance. I just didn’t have it. At this time, he would have already become a disabled person and was living a nursing life with his mother’s help.
“The day before, I was out of Signal to deal with the contracts my mother signed under my name. Do you remember?”
“ah. Maybe then?”
“It reminded me of the advertising contract I had at that time. There was a provision that if I wanted to, I would sell any item with the highest priority, whenever I wanted. So it’s not difficult to get them back.”
I forgot for a moment.
Since he was a character who exited in the first episode, he did not feel much of it. Pyo Yu-rim suddenly realized that outside of Signal, he was a celebrity that looked like a celebrity.
She sat down on a chair in front of the cake and pounded on the desk.
“Come over here and sit down. You can eat as much as you like.”
As he said that, he lightly snorted with triumphant eyes.
“A wild forest.”
“yes.”
“Ever since then, I am. Are you the one who stole yours? Aren’t you angry?”
“are you okay. Rather, I’m glad to know what you like.”
oh my god
I couldn’t bear to meet your eyes, so I lowered my head. I felt an unbearable sense of guilt.
‘Next time, let’s never play pranks like this on him.’
A stray forest was also a stray forest.
***
Morning of the 6th day.
The number of students gathered in the campground was significantly reduced compared to the first day. At first, it almost filled the playground, but now it’s about half.
Another impressive thing was the number of female students who survived.
‘This is the exact opposite of the original.’
It was now faster to count how many were left, not how many were gone. Among them, all of the first-year female survivors, except for my acquaintances, were all wiped out.
I looked back at the remaining schedule of the preliminary examination.
The 6th day is a party-type test where you explore a model dungeon in a group of 4 people. On the 7th day, a raid test is waiting for about 10 people to gather and defeat a large monster room.
‘Like that, I took the test before the monster room, and on the 8th day, I moved on to the person-to-person test.’
interpersonal warfare. It was literally a test that pitted contestants against contestants.
There were good reasons for taking such a variety of tests. This was because the Meteor Shower was played in a complex event.
There were fights between adults that were easiest to understand and fights against monsters, as well as fights where you had to pass through difficult terrain and survive in a harsh environment.
‘The car on the 9th was the final gateway.’
On the ninth day, all participants gather at a designated place and take a test to endure for a full day. Here, teaching assistants take on the role of ‘Mine’ and aim for the participants.
This section was the date I was most concerned about.
Among the teaching assistants who played the role of Mine, the real Mine. Septagram’s assassin sneaks into the group of teaching assistants.
I didn’t even know who it was. Even in the original story, this part was random, so I couldn’t be sure who would be the assassin.
What I need to be careful about is my comfort and preventing the helplessly weak Seol Chae-hwa and Min Seo-eun from being targeted.
In the original work, there was a setting that Septagram sent an assassin to retaliate for the raid on the laboratory. The target the assassin will aim for is the main character and the people around him. There will be no big changes in reality.
‘Glaine asked to meet me at the Meteor Shower stage… … . If I die by the assassins, I’m sure they’ll snort at me, saying that I was a guy with only that level in the end.’
in the midst of that
Standing on top of the podium, the instructor tapped the microphone in front of him with his index finger and said,
“On the 6th day, one person per position. There will be a group test in the form of a group of 4 people. The assignment of members will be determined arbitrarily, and the criteria for assignment are determined by referring to the intention of the instructor and the opinions of the teaching assistants who cooperated with this test. If you have any questions or objections about this… … .”
After that, after a few more words close to rubbish, we formed a group of four, guided by assistants who checked the list while holding paper documents.
“Kim Do-yoon’s junior can form a group with these participants.”
Coincidentally, it was Jeong Gyu-min who guided me. I remembered the last time Kwak Min-gi clung to me. Did you even touch the baton because it didn’t go your way?
by the way.
“Are you aiming for this?”
“Are you aiming? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I looked at the group assigned to me.
“Hick!”
“What you looking at.”
“… … .”
A student who is frightened when our eyes meet, and a student who shows hostility while glaring at me. And even a student looking at the distant mountain as if he had no interest at all.
What a strange coincidence. All three of them were girls.
‘There aren’t that many girls, but three of them have been assigned to me?’
I looked around.
Looking at the other groups, most of them consisted of only male students. At most, even if there is a female student, there is only one student in each group.
In such a landscape, there were those who stood out exceptionally. They were competitors for the same position in the same grade as me.
The team members assigned to them had a different atmosphere from my team members. They were the ones who naturally gave me the feeling of being reassured from their appearance, without needing anything else.
I smiled and looked at Jeong Gyu-min.
“Are you going to come out like this?”
“You keep saying weird things. I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but isn’t it good for you anyway? You say you like women?”
“Isn’t the senior’s influence also involved in the selection of this member?”
“well. All I can say right now is a word of encouragement. Take the test well while getting help from others this time.”
From nob le mt l. com
Jeong Gyu-min said that and left.
I looked back at my teammates.
“Seniors.”
I tried to speak out, but no one responded.
I opened my mouth again.
“We’re in the same group, so let’s do our best.”
still ignoring
Actually, this was normal.
I was somewhat tearful at my position of having to regard such treatment as normal, but what can I do? Until now, the female students around me had been strangely friendly.
“Everyone, don’t you want to leave the 6th day because of personal feelings after safely handing over the 5th day?”
It was only when I brought out a realistic point that the members of the crew looked at me.
“you.”
one of them. The senior who had been staring at me with a sharp gaze from the moment they were assigned to the same group said.
“yes?”
“I’m trying to sneakily take the initiative, but don’t be fooled.”
“It’s nonsense. It sounds absurd. It was said that we should do well with each other because everyone is talking face to face.”
“Noisy. I’m the only 3rd year among them and I have a lot of experience, so I’ll be the leader of the party. Aren’t you all dissatisfied?”
As she said that, she looked back and forth at the two second-year students a year younger than her, and they nodded in anticipation.
“What about my opinion?”
“The majority agrees, so I don’t need your opinion.”
At that moment, Gyu-min Gyu-min, whom I thought had gone far, caught my eye over the senior’s shoulder.
The guy was laughing at me. I felt the will to do well at least once.
“This time too, take the test well while getting help from others.”
The words he left me a while ago as a word of encouragement overlap. It was a provocation that seemed conscious of the fact that I had been helped by Pyo Yu-rim and Shin So-ra in the bath.
‘You were determined to blatantly trick me.’
then.
I had no choice but to answer with a frontal breakthrough.
I made up my mind to do so. Because I showed you that it can be done.